Focaccia for the Love of It - Longmeadow Farm

Typically, at the end of a long Saturday, after the farm has been put to bed, I bake these little focaccia delights. The bread usually fills the empty pockets of hunger that have made themselves known during the long afternoon. Sometimes I prep the dough the night before, or quite often, just plop the bread and make it pretty quickly. We usually sit around the wood stove, and devour a couple of pieces with some nice warm tea, or a cold beer, depending on how much we broke on the farm during that afternoon. Either way, enjoy, have fun, and always eat well.

• Ready In: 1 hr 30 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 5 1⁄4 cups  unbleached bread flour
• 2  tablespoons sugar
• 1  teaspoon sugar
• 4  teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 (2 1/4teaspoon) package instant yeast
• 2 1⁄2 cups warm water
• 4  tablespoons olive oil, divided

• Toppings

• 1  dash  crushed rosemary
• 1  dash  crushed thyme
•  coarse salt

Directions

1. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, yeast and water in the large bowl of KA mixer or using the dough cycle of bread machine.
2. If using bread machine let it go through dough cycle, and pick up from step 5. If using the KA mixer, use the paddle attachment (of KA), slowly mix until the ingredients form a ball about 30 seconds.
3. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium low for another 3 minutes.
4. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes and then mix on medium low for another 3 minutes, until relatively smooth. The dough will be very wet and sticky.
5. Put dough on board or counter dusted with a bit of flour.
6. Grasp the dough and stretch it to nearly twice its size. Fold it onto itself. Rotate 1/4 turn. Rotate and stretching the dough four times. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of oil over the dough. (and continue to knead a couple of times).
7. Coat a bowl with 1/2 teaspoon oil (large enough to hold the dough when it doubles in size), and put dough in turning it over once. (addendum: the oil is to prevent sticking when in bowl).
8. Wrap the dough well with plastic and let dough rise until doubled, or you can refrigerate overnight for a slow rise.
9. Cover a 13x18-inch rimmed baking sheet with parchment and coat the surface with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Slide dough out of bowl, guiding it out of the bowl, onto the center of the pan. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil on top of the dough. Using your fingertips dimple entire surface of dough while gently pushing dough down and out toward edges of pan. Don't be concerned if dough won't reach corners. If dough resists, let it rest for 20 minutes, then continue to dimple and stretch.
10. Preheat oven to 475°F Put the pan on a rack to let air circulate around it. Be sure surface of dough is coated with enough olive oil to prevent it from drying out as it rises to about 1-1/2 times its original size and swells to the rim of the pan.
11. Just before baking, sprinkle some sea salt over the dough. Put pan in the middle of the oven and reduce heat to 450°. Bake approximately 20 minutes, until golden brown on top and bottom. Remove focaccia from pan and parchment and set on rack to cool.
12. Brush last tablespoon of oil, add toppings.